Tag: foodie

Superfoods. The new “must have” in the healthy living society. So, first of all, what is a superfood? Superfoods are packed with nutrients to provide the body with vitamins and minerals in order to thrive, survive and just feel amazing!

Growing up, I never knew much about nutrition. I just ate any crap that I could find in the house: pancakes filled with sugar and cinnamon, “vetkoek”, heaps of cookies, etc. When I started staying on my own and learning to cook, I always looked for easy things. A boxed meal or 2 Minute Noodles was for dinner most nights. Unfortunately, we can’t eat like that forever. My belly started growing, my thighs were getting bigger, and I developed that granny arm fat!

I knew I couldn’t carry on like this forever, I might end up being obese! I started looking at the conventional way of doing things: “eat less, move more”. Eating less is not something I strive for. I have a huge appetite. So instead, I knew that I was going to have to eat healthier and start some exercise of some form.

Fast forward a few years and the name Superfood came up a lot. So if you are new to this, Wazoogles is the way to go! Why? Okay, first of all, there a like a kazillion superfoods, where the eff do you start looking? Also, have you seen the prices of these things? It’s actually shocking. So the lovely people at Wazoogles came up with a solution. They made a smoothie range which is packed with all the right superfoods, for a reasonable price.

Not only can you make delicious smoothies, you can make smoothie bowls or bake something yum! They have some amazing date ball recipes as well! Everyone who knows me, know that I am the smoothie bowl queen. So below are my favourite smoothie and smoothie bowl recipes using the amazing Wazoogles brand. I also linked the products which I use.

I actually remember my first time there. My flatmate and I wanted to go to Kauai, but we walked passed Osumo and decided to just take a look at the menu. Flatmate was really amped for this, but I did have my heart set on Kauai. Fortunately for her, I am an impulsive person, so I decided to give it a try. After this day, my life changed. Osumo is all I want!

Osumo is located in Canal Walk, Cavendish Square, Sea Point as well as Green Point. What I love the most about them, is that they like to stick to the basics. They strive to create a well-balanced lifestyle with regards to eating (especially fast food). The staff is always friendly and happy to wait patiently if you simply cannot decide between all the yummy food choices!

For a year I was so in love with the Vanilla Chilla smoothie, but my favorite now is the Almond Coffee smoothie. When it comes to the food, I do not have a favorite. I absolutely love The Flinstone (it has bacon in), or if I want something more plain, I have the Roasted Butternut & Danish Feta. You can decide if you want it in a salad, wrap or sandwich. Last week I actually tried the Sunflower Power Wrap. It has chickpeas with salad things and a delicious soy sauce and olive oil dressing! Definitely a must try for the veggie lovers!

I do encourage everyone to give Osumo a try. Take that risk that I did, you might be pleasantly surprised! The menu is available on their website if you want to check it out beforehand. I literally haven’t had anything bad from the menu, and I have had almost everything! From wraps to salads even to the stir fry! Next I’m definitely trying their Chocolate Pod Oats, because chocolate is life as we all know.

It happens to all of us. You were looking forward to have some delicious stovetop oats for breakfast. Sadly, you overslept and you’re running around like a crazy person! You practically shower in like 30 seconds, just grab your things and run out!

Okay, so before this happens again, go to your closest shop and buy yourself some Futurlife Smart Oats. Futurelife sent me some of their products as I am a super fan of the Futurelife Lite Bars. They sent me the Apple Cinnamon flavour and I absolutely loved it! The Apple Cinnamon flavour is not too overwhelming. Just enough and well balanced. I topped my brekkie with some banana and peanut butter for added healthiness (you know what they say, a day without peanut butter is a day wasted!) It’s also so easy to make! You simply add some hot water or milk and there you go.

I feel like the above isn’t that much motivation for you to buy the cereal, so let me tell you the technical things:

Futurelife Smart Oats provide you with all the good vitamins and nutrients you need.

My opinion on the nutritional values: I personally feel that the protein can be a little higher, but you can always add some protein powder of choice if you feel like it. I’m definitely trying that next time. I would also like to reduce the sugar a little bit, but I also feel like it 7.6g isn’t a ridiculous amount. The fibre is a good amount as you need 25g of fibre a day.

So please try it out. Let me know how it tastes! I would also love to try all the other flavours!

We are all guilty of this. You’ve had a tough week, you cannot wait until Friday to see your friends and relax. So what happens? Usually in my case, my friends invite me for a braai (or Barbecue for the Americans).

So the process goes as follow: I finish work, stop by the shop, buy myself a bottle of wine, snacks for the braai (usually popcorn) and any sides needed. We get there, I have a glass of wine and dig into the chips! By the time the chips are finished, it’s about 8pm and I am stuffed. The boys are having such a good time, they don’t even realise that none of us have actually eaten a good meal. By the time they do realise this, it’s after 10pm already. They start to prepare the braai for the food, put the meat on and we only eat at after 11pm.

Next, everyone gets tired and we all go home with full tummies and feeling sick. The next morning we wake up feeling terrible. People tell you to have a greasy meal afterwards, but that is actually the worst thing you can do. Feeling this one too many times, I decided to do some research regarding foods to eat the next day. Here is what I found:

1. Bananas

The first thing that most websites lists are bananas. Bananas are easy to digest and they contain pectin, which firms up loose stools.

2. Ginger and Cinnamon

Ginger relieves nausea as well as vomiting. Add some fresh ginger to herbal tea, with some lemon and honey in order to mask the flavour. Add some cinnamon to toast or oats.

3. Yoghurt

Most people advice you not to have any diary while having an upset stomach, but plain yoghurt helps to balance out the stomach and restores all the good bacteria in the tummy.

4. Eggs

Eggs are filled with amino acids, such as cysteine and taurine. Cysteine assists in breaking down acetaldehyde while Taurine boosts liver function – remember, your liver worked pretty hard last night!

I found all of this so interesting, but I wanted to create a quick and easy recipe to fight the hangover blues. Something that you can quickly get up and make, and slip right back into bed and rest for another hour or so.

Easy Hangover Cure:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oats

1/2 teaspoon honey

1 banana

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Add oats to a bowl with some warm water. (Enough to cover oats and a little more)

Microwave for 1 min 30 seconds.

Add cinnamon to oats and mix.

Slice banana in coins and add it on top of the oats. Add some honey to sweeten it a little.

To drink, have some herbal tea (I drink green tea) add some lemon juice and honey (optional) to sweeten.

Some days, you want something that you are familiar with. Pizza, burgers and all that kinds of comfort food. Other days, you might feel adventurous, try something that you have never eaten in your life before. The issue? You don’t want to pay a lot of money for this “something new”. What if it doesn’t taste good? So when I heard Yuzu had an opening special, of course I had to go try it!

The special: 1/2 price sushi and R99 for a bowl of Ramen and a drink. We decided to try the sushi as well as the ramen. The sushi is quite pricey, but the portions are huge!We had the Tuna and Avo Maki and the Salmon and Avo Onigirazu. It was 8 pieces in total, which fiancé and I shared. I only managed to have 3 pieces! I promise you guys, the portions are huge, but so good!

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So next up: the ramen. We were both really scared, but really excited to try this new dish. The verdict: when are we having ramen again!? It was amazing! The ramen consisted of a soft boiled egg, udon noodles, spring onion, toasted sesame seeds, chinese leaf and bean sprouts in a lemongrass broth. I went for the chicken option, thinking it would be a little healthier. The chicken was deep fried (but lets be honest everything deep fried is good anyways). The flavours are amazing! I absolutely loved the noodles as well as the lemongrass broth. Again, the portions were huge. Neither of us could finish the bowl of food!

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I definitely recommend this place for anyone who wants to try something new. Especially since they have a special. Support this new restaurant guys! You will be pleasantly surprised, I promise!

Are you looking for the best lunch spot in Cape Town? Melissa’s have a few branches, from Kloof street in Cape Town to Paarl. They have a huge breakfast menu. I have had their banana bread before and it is a must try!

Arriving here, I was served quite quick and offered a menu. I had a question about the sandwiches, but the waiter seemed to be unsure. He called another lady though who helped me really quick. Previously I’ve had a “bacon jam” sandwich here and I was really excited to have it again, but they seem to have taken it off the menu. I then settled on the BLT sandwich. I really enjoyed the sandwich, the rye bread was so fresh and the bacon just crispy enough so that it wasn’t difficult to chew (yes, I have experienced this before).

Melissa’s will definitely see me again soon! They have a buffet style table, where they weigh the food. It looked amazing! I will be back to try this out!

We all have those days. You look at the watch thinking “it must be at least 4pm now”. To your surprise, it’s only 1pm. You have eaten all your food, because you are just too hungry to focus today! You keep thinking of everything you need to do after work, cooking dinner is literally the last thing on your mind. Don’t you worry, my dear. I’ve got you covered!

I was in this situation today. After work I still had to go run a few errands and go grocery shopping! One thing is true – never go grocery shopping when hungry. I bought some yoghurt covered peanuts and had a handful immediately when I walked out of the shop! So unnecessary! So walking out of the shop, I realised I only defrosted a small chicken breast and a packet of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. What was I thinking? What am I even going to make with that? I decided to just go home, look in the fridge at what I’ve got and just put something together. It came out pretty tasty in my opinion!

30 Minute Curry Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 tsp oil (I used coconut oil)

1 red onion

1 broccoli head

1 cauliflower head

4 medium sized carrots

1 tin chopped tomato

4 chicken breasts, cut into cubes

1/2 cup milk of choice (Coconut milk would work really good in this!)

1/2 cup water

2 cups cooked rice

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp coriander

2 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a large frying pain or pot.

Steam the carrots for about 2 minutes in the microwave.

While the frying pan is heating, cook rice either in microwave or small pot.

Add chopped red onion until softened. Add the chicken breasts. Cook for about 8 minutes until it’s almost cooked.

Add the curry powder, ginger, turmeric, coriander and cumin. Cook for about 5 more minutes.

Place the veggies to the pot and cook until softened. (About 8 minutes)